Rafael Nadal finds a way to advance at Sony

Fourth-seeded Spaniard drops first set but prevails against Nalbandian in third-round match at Sony Ericsson Open Sunday

March 28, 2010|By Harvey Fialkov, Sun Sentinel

KEY BISCAYNE — The Rafa-Roger dream final is still alive — barely.

After fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal dropped a drama-packed, yet error-filled first-set tiebreaker to wild-card entrant David Nalbandian, it looked like the Spaniard would be the third highest seed behind top-ranked Roger Federer to fall in three days, following No. 2 Novak Djokovic and No. 3 Andy Murray into clay-court season.

Unlike Djokovic and especially Murray, when Nadal trails he doesn't slump his shoulders. Instead, he flashes that Elvis Presley-like sneer and grinds his opponents down as he did en route to a 6-7 (8), 6-2, 6-2 victory on a packed Stadium Court at the Sony Ericsson Open Sunday afternoon.

"If I am in the final, I don't care,'' Nadal said of a potential matchup with Federer, who he's 13-7 against but lost their last meeting in the Madrid finals last May when his knee problems first flared.

"In tennis the last few years, the top players usually never lose in the first round. When it happens, everyone is so surprised but you don't know how tough it is to be mentally ready all the time. It doesn't affect me if Murray or Djokovic is outside if I lose today.''

Hoping to spoil the marquee final is sixth-seeded Andy Roddick, who breezed into the round of 16 with a routine 6-2, 6-1 victory over Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky. Roddick, still flashing the pristine tennis he played to reach the final at Indian Wells last week, has an advantageous draw until a possible meeting with Nadal in the semis.

"It's rare when you kind of walk off thinking everything kind of went the way you wanted it to,'' said Roddick, who next plays unseeded Benjamin Becker, a German living in Fort Lauderdale who's never taken a set in three matches against Roddick.

It didn't hurt Nadal that the barrel-chested Nalbandian, a Top 10 player from 2003-07 now ranked 161, is known for his powerful two-hand backhand but not his conditioning. Nalbandian was only playing in his second tournament since undergoing hip surgery last May.

Nadal was in control of the first-set tiebreaker and serving at 5-4, but tossed in "an amazing double fault'' to shift the momentum.

"I had my chances in the second set but after that I was tired and Rafa is Rafa, his level goes up,'' said Nalbandian, referring to not converting two break points with Nadal serving at 1-2 of the second set.

Next up for Nadal is another aggressive Spanish baseliner David Ferrer, who toppled 6-foot-10 Croate Ivo Karlovic, 7-6 (5), 6-3, as the perennial ATP ace leader only got in 51 percent of his first serves. Nadal is 8-3 against Ferrer, but just 2-2 on hard courts.

"I felt he was a little bit more tired than me,'' said Nadal, now 2-2 against Nalbandian. "He started to make more mistakes. … I think it's strange that one player like David doesn't have a Grand Slam victory because he has everything to win.''